Man on bicycle groping women at ASU

A bicyclist who has groped seven women at Arizona State University since March this week escalated to reaching under a student's shirt and squeezing her breast, ASU police said Thursday.

In the six prior incidents, the bicyclist would ride up behind the women and slap them on the rear-end, said Jim Hardina, commander of ASU police in Tempe.

Then he would either circle around and do another quick slap, or ride off before any one could get a good look him, Hardina said.

On Tuesday, he reached under a student's shirt and bra and squeezed her breast, Hardina said. He then rode off. The victim said she was so shocked she dropped her cell phone, according to a police report.

"She said when the suspect grabbed her breast she felt shocked, mad and violated," the police report says.

Then, as the student was walking west toward the cross walk on the north side of Physical Science H wing, the suspect rode up behind her a second time.

With his right hand, the report says, he grabbed her left arm. She yelled at him.

"As she was yelling at him he slightly turned his head so she could slightly see the side of his face and he grinned at her, then rode south on his dark-colored mountain bike," the report says.

The biker is described as a dark-skinned male in his early 20s with black hair. He usually wears a t-shirt and shorts, sometimes a backpack, and he rides a dark-colored mountain bike, Hardina said.

All the assaults have taken place on a mall or sidewalk of the Tempe campus between 9:30 and 10:45 a.m. and between 3 and 8 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Two were reported in March, two in July and three in August, Hardina said.

"We definitely want to catch him before he escalates any further," Hardina said.

Hardina urges students to leave their headphones in their bags and put away the cell phones while walking around. Be alert, pay attention and if you see a suspicious person or someone on a dark bike that fits the description please call police, Hardina said.

Slapping the rear-end is a misdemeanor, while groping womens' breasts is a felony, Hardina said.

The suspect apparently left a scratch on the chest of Tuesday's victim, which police photographed.